


(In)Direct

by SweetAshori



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Surprise Kissing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-07
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,474
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27926137
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SweetAshori/pseuds/SweetAshori
Summary: Kohaku gets her first taste of cola, while Gen reminisces about an old romantic comedy trope.
Relationships: Asagiri Gen & Kohaku, Asagiri Gen/Kohaku
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	(In)Direct

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Dr. STONE. I know this is obvious, but hey, disclaimers are fun.
> 
> Authoress' Note: This is an idea that I actually started to write before NaNo, but I never finished it before November came up. So I decided to take a small break from writing Hear Me Now so I could finish this story. Please enjoy!

Gen Asagiri's love for cola wasn't some sort of secret. At least, it wasn't a secret for long, not after his enthusiasm for the very first bottle of the sticky, brown drink he had in over 3700 years. Since that first bottle, he had (very strongly) encouraged the re-creator of his favorite drink – the scientist also from the time of the great petrification, Senku Ishigami – to make more batches of it as rewards for his hard work. Something that both extremely annoyed and very mildly amused the scientist in question, both related as to how Gen seemed to work “harder” when he knew there was a reward at the end of it.

And rewarded he was, as he now sat not too far outside of the main camp of the Kingdom of Science, sitting comfortably on the large protruding root of a beautiful tree, with a brand new bottle of cola, along with a small snack of three small, grilled fish on skewers, all packed into his own mini picnic. Of course, he knew that soon enough, he would be dragged back to the strenuous labor that never seemed to end, but he lived for the little moments of peace he could get where he could just enjoy himself. A nice day with gentle breeze, the unfiltered sounds of nature, and a small yet satisfying meal... what more could a man like him want in the moment?

“Oh! Hey, Gen. Was wondering where you scurried off to.”

He barely had time to unfold his picnic when the voice – a familiar, feminine, and friendly sort of voice – came through, breaking him from his little bit of personal time. Although, he wasn't upset by this disturbance, knowing who it was that was inquiring. “Good afternoon, Kohaku-chan~ What are you up to today?”

The resident huntress of Ishigami Village took her place next to Gen, sitting on the root with a few inches between their forms to give a comfortable amount of space between them. “Senku wanted me to haul some materials around for him and Kaseki. I've been at it all morning,” she replied, wiping some sweat from her brow, “I wanted to take a break for awhile, so I decided to take a walk. What are you doing out here? Having yourself a snack?”

“Ah, yes. You see, dear Senku made me another precious bottle of cola, so I wanted to enjoy myself~” he sing-songed, unfolding the wrap that he placed around the glass bottle and his grilled fish, gently allowing it to cover his lap like a napkin, showing off his spoils.

Kohaku raised a brow at him, but smirked and laughed, shaking her head, “Should've figured. You really love that cola stuff.”

He chuckled, “As you have your vice for ramen and sweets, I have mine for cola. It'd be very kind of you not to judge.”

“I'm not!” she said, her voice a mixture of playful and insulted, her gaze expressing this as well, making Gen chuckle again.

He grabbed one of the skewers, holding it out towards his guest, “Would you like one? After all of that heavy lifting, I'm sure you must be hungry.”

“Yes, please! Thank you,” the blonde replied eagerly, gingerly taking the skewer from his hand, taking a bite of the fish.

She momentarily cringed at how dry it tasted, although she didn't make the comment towards him. She wasn't so rude as to critique something that wasn't originally meant for her anyway, and she already was pretty certain that, out of the two from the pre-stone world, Gen was the weaker cook. Although she didn't mean this as an insult; Gen had shared several times with her – and the others of the Kingdom, when inquired – of his world, where he spent much of his time on stages and in front of audiences. Since he was always busy, cooking was probably left for someone else to do, and so what skills he had were likely very minimal. Not that she ever thought that Senku had much in the way of typical cooking skills himself, although at least he had science to guide him.

Gen took a bite out of one of the other skewers, deflating at the taste of it and realizing how overcooked that it was. Yes, for certain, he was not a cook. Honestly, if he had the chance, he would've greatly preferred to eat something else, but there was only a few small fish left over from what was brought over earlier that morning, with much less time to try and cook them up before he could potentially be dragged in for more work. He coughed on the dry food, dropping the skewer onto the picnic setting on his lap, quickly popping the top off of the cola bottle and taking a long drink of the liquid, quenching his thirst, swallowing before clearing his throat.

“Ugh... my apologies, Kohaku-chan. I didn't realize how terribly overcooked these were,” he croaked out an apologized, trying to clear his throat and reinstate his voice.

“It's okay. Yeah, it's pretty dry, but I didn't want to be rude and say anything,” she accepted the apology, choking down the rest of the skewer, “I figured if I ate it fast enough, the taste wouldn't be so bad.”

“You're too kind, but you didn't have to finish eating it just for my sake,” he said with a sigh, appreciating the thought but still feeling rather bad for offering her such a subpar treat.

He handed her the bottle of cola, offering her a drink to clear her throat. She eyed the bottle curiously; she had never taken a drink of this precious reward of his. She had always wanted to, of course, wanting to see what exactly was the fascination with this drink. After all, it was a main reason why he had defected from the Tsukasa Empire! It had to be something of impeccable taste to cause such a reaction. However, she had never wanted to impose on him for a drink, nor wanted to pester Senku to make a bottle, knowing that could lead to a whole other pot of worms.

Almost too cautiously for her own good, her fingers slowly grasped the bottle, taking it from Gen's hand and bringing the opening close to her lips. She could smell the fruity sensations of the brown liquid very clearly, enticing her even more than her parched tongue to take a sip. She brought the lip of it to her own, tipping it enough to allow a small sip of the liquid just to get the taste of it. The bubbly water tickled her tongue, almost making her want to jump up from her seat due to the surprise, but the flavor was enough to keep her from doing so, taking a bit larger of a drink to actually eliminate the dryness.

She removed the bottle with a refreshing sigh and pop, licking her lips of the sticky substance. Gen let out a small chuckle seeing that satisfied grin and shine in her eyes as she processed the new drink. “Wow, that's SO good!” she exclaimed, blushing almost comically as one hand came up to her cheek in praise and delight over the sweet treat.

“I'm glad that you enjoyed it so much, Kohaku-chan,” he commented, taking the bottle back from her grasp, making sure that in her excitement she wouldn't risk dropping the glass.

“So much! I can see why you betrayed the Tsukasa Empire for this stuff,” she remarked in a mostly joking tone, although Gen felt rather sheepish in response to her assessment; it wasn't like that was the ONLY reason he had became a spy, but to hear that sort of reasoning from her mouth was a little...

He cleared his throat, pushing on past that bit of weird feeling and not letting it settle any further. Bringing the bottle up to his lips, he took a sip of it, discarding the wrecked food to his side, handing it back over to Kohaku as he noticed how much she was eyeing it, almost as though she was secretly hoping for another drink. She took it with a grateful smile, taking another short drink and making the same squealing noises she did the first time. He chuckled again as she turned pink from the delight the bubbles were giving her, giving the bottle back to him with another bout of thanks.

He was a bit dismayed that the bottle was already halfway gone after only a few sips, but her happiness and reaction to her first taste of cola made that a lot easier to accept. It was almost watching a little child tasting the concoction for the first time, how amusing he recalled seeing random videos of such things as he scrolled through social media on his phone, and he couldn't help himself but find that sort of reaction to be entirely adorable. Not that he would mention such a thing to her, of course.

He started to bring the bottle back up to his lips to take one long drink, stopping short by an inch or so, dropping it slowly from its position. Kohaku eyed him with a quirked brow as he let out a mysterious laugh, shaking his head and making a comment quietly to himself about how random his line of thinking was in the moment.

“What's up, Gen?”

“Ah... nothing, really. Just an odd thought from the past.”

“Like what?”

Gen debated about telling her what was on his mind, although after a few seconds, he shrugged off the debate. It was a harmless thought, and surely nothing would come from it other than some light blustering. At least, that's what he hoped for; he was sure that Kohaku was mature enough to not react so violently to such a silly thing.

“Sharing this bottle as we are, I was randomly reminded of an old trope used in movies and books of the past called the indirect kiss,” he answered, bringing the bottle down to settle the bottom against his lap.

She tilted her head to one side, “Indirect kiss?”

“You see, in old romantic comedies, there was this idea of setting up two people, in which one or both of them may have some level of unrequited feelings for the other, into a situation much like we are now,” he tried to set the scene, “In the scene, one of them is eating or drinking something, and either they offer to share it with the other or the other steals a taste, and the reaction is usually some sort of flustered reaction. The idea is that, by the person they are crushing on taking said edible and bringing it up to their lips, it's playing off the idea of something touching their lips that is now touching their crush's lips. Hence, the indirect kiss.”

Kohaku blinked, processing the explanation as Gen smirked, tapping a finger against the rim of the bottle before tapping his bottom lip, “This is exactly what we had done, dear Kohaku-chan.”

It took three seconds for the blonde to realize the truth of the situation and then promptly blushed, turning her head away from him, embarrassed over the goofy idea. “O-oh... I see,” she replied with a stutter, and Gen chuckled at how he managed to get her to react in such an uncommon way for her character, as well as glad that she didn't lash out at him as he feared that she could.

“My apologies for making you feel so flustered,” he said with sincerity, “It was a silly, random thought, that was all. I suppose it's not a surprise my mind had decided to bring up such a memory; it was a very common device in the past for such sweet tales, and so it was something I had often seen. It was very effective in bringing up those bubbly feelings that people liked to associate with romance.”

“I guess I can see that,” Kohaku replied, already sobered up from her initial embarrassment, “It's kinda cute, when you think about it from that sort of angle. Although it's also kinda stupid if you think about it more practically. I've never once thought I was kissing Ruri or Suika whenever I've shared food with them. It's just sharing.”

“As Senku likes to say, it's an illogical sort of thing.”

Gen chuckled, taking a swig of the drink before he offered it back to her for another sip. However, this time, she didn't make any sort of move to take the bottle, choosing to stare at it with an unreadable expression and some sort of deep thinking. A brief moment of regret crossed his mind; ah, now she was self-conscious to what was being done, and now she was hesitating to partake in another drink as to not push the issue. His arm lowered slightly, not entirely withdrawing his offer, smile falling a bit as another apology danced on his tongue. He, of course, didn't mean to make her feel such a way by explaining his odd memory, nor wanted to put a damper on this tasty memory of her own.

“Ah, I'm sor--”

The words barely left his mouth before he was thoroughly silenced by Kohaku's lips upon his own, one hand on his extended arm to use it as some sort of leverage to allow her to lean in without falling on top of him, putting a shocking amount of pressure into her surprise attack. Gen's heart began to race, dark eyes widened, and entire body turning red hot, unable to make any sort of noise or movement in protest to her act, just staring at her closed eyes and pink-touched cheeks.

The kiss last only a few seconds before she pulled back, looking almost too satisfied with herself as she saw the mentalist's bewildered face. “I think I greatly prefer the direct approach,” she replied nonchalantly, licking her feline grin clean of the taste of his lips and the sticky soda, taking the bottle from his grip as he still tried to understand what exactly had just happened.

She stood up, taking a large sip and let out another gleeful sigh afterwards, “Thank you for the cola!”

Turning away from him, she began to walk back towards the main camp, still carrying the almost empty bottle in her hand, leaving Gen to stare at her retreating back. He blinked, face still a bright red, before he just laughed out loud, brushing one hand through the white side of his split-monochrome locks. “That crafty woman,” he said in between his laughs, shaking his head at the incredible, impossible thing before making the real revelation of her move, “She actually stole the rest of my cola.”

He couldn't bring himself to be mad.

_**\- end -** _


End file.
